The two incidents of late, disgusting behaviour, first a doctor being dragged of a plane screaming, cut and bleeding, to make way for a airline staff to take his seat, as they over booked, now the video of the poor crying woman as they take her stroller off her, i don't see anyone consoling her either, only a jumped up idiot making the situation worse by yelling at a passenger for intervening, trying to help this defenceless lady, holding two kids in her arms. So what are your rights, the bangkokpost.com. gives some insight to Passengers' rights here in thailand. What can Thai travelers ask for when their flights are delayed or cancelled

Passengers' rights

The law in Thailand is valid for airlines holding an air operating licence for domestic scheduled flights.

A passenger's rights are protected when:

Flight Delay

1. If the delay is between two and three hours, the airline must pursue the following actions:

• provide food and drinks to passengers as appropriate to the waiting time before boarding the aircraft free of charge

• provide necessary and appropriate facilities for passengers in terms of communication such as telephones, facsimile and email facilities free of charge

• refund the airfare based on conditions

2. If the delay is more than three hours but does not exceed five hours, the airline must pursue the following actions:

• provide food and drinks to passengers as appropriate to the waiting time before boarding the aircraft free of charge

• provide necessary and appropriate facilities for passengers in terms of communication methods such as telephones, facsimile and email facilities free of charge

• offer the passenger the following options: a) refund the airfare (b) reschedule the flight (c) travel via other appropriate means of transport to the destination specified on the ticket

3. If the delay is more than five hours but does not exceed six hours, the airline must pursue the following actions:

• apply the same rules in the case when the delay is more than three hours but not exceeding five hours and,

• compensate 600 baht in cash immediately before the passenger departs to the destination, except when the airline can prove that the delay was caused by an unexpected situation beyond its control

4. If the delay is more than six hours, the airline must follow the rules in relation to the cancellation of the flight

Flight cancellation or refusal of transport

1. Offer the passenger the following options:

• refund the airfare or

• reschedule the flight to the destination as specified on the ticket or

• provide alternative transport

2. Undertake the following to care for the passenger:

• provide food and drinks appropriate to the waiting time before boarding the aircraft free of charge

• provide necessary and appropriate facilities to passengers in terms of communication methods such as telephones, facsimile and email facilities free of charge

• provide food and drinks appropriate to the waiting time before boarding the aircraft free of charge

• provide necessary and appropriate facilities to passengers in terms of communication methods such as telephones, facsimile and email facilities free of charge

• provide a hotel room for the passenger free of charge for at least one night as appropriate to the transport between the airport and the hotel if the new flight is scheduled to depart later than the original schedule for one day.

3. Compensate 1,200 baht in cash immediately before the passenger departs to the destination, except if the airline can prove the following:

• the airline notified passengers about the flight cancellation prior no less than three days to the departure date or,

• the airline notified the passenger about the flight cancellation less than three days prior to the departure date, if the new flight departs to the destination prior to or after the original date sooner or later than the original date no more than three hours or,

• the flight cancellation is caused by an unexpected situation beyond the control of the airline.

Note: Terms and conditions are also subject to the details stipulated on the ticket that the passengers agree with the airlines. Source: Announcement of the Ministry of Transport on Protection of Passenger Rights Using Thai Carriers' Services for Domestic Scheduled Routes 2010

With overbooking in the spotlight and passengers being forcefully removed from aircraft, all the stories alike are now coming out the woodwork. An article in the bangkokpost.com. shows another example of how bad the airlines can treat you. Pop idol and movie star "Ice", almost did not make it to his concert. Earlier this year, he was denied boarding on a return flight from Ethiopia because it was overbooked. He was due at a concert, After a long argument they let him on the plane. After an apology they offered him an upgrade next time he flies with them, Then the agent backed out as he had nothing in writing to prove it.

"Denied boarding is common in our day-to-day operations. Airlines usually oversell seats because there are always no-show passengers. But the UA case is unusual because they should have settled everything at the gate, not after the passengers boarded the aircraft," said a station manager of an international airline who asked not to be named.

"This incident has many Thai passengers aware of the possibility of denied boarding and their rights," said the station manager, who has worked at various overseas airports in more than two decades in the aviation business.

UNAWARE OF OVERBOOKING

"Overbooking is normal for airlines. We oversell 2-3% per flight. But when we face overbooking, we will negotiate compensation until the passengers volunteer to give up their seats by offering other benefits or credit vouchers, ranging from US$500 to $3,000, depending on the flight," said an executive of an American airline who asked not to be named.

"We have to ensure that the passengers agree with our offer. We are very careful. We don't want to force any passenger off the plane because if the passenger takes legal action against us, that can be a nightmare.

"Overbooking is necessary because some passengers don't show up. Overbooking reduces the number of empty seats because every seat incurs added operation costs."

Before the no-show, no-refund clause, the number of no-show passengers was around 20-30% per flight.

After the no-show, no-refund rule came into effect, the number of no-show passengers dropped. But airlines still oversell to avoid empty seats, the executive said.

"American passengers are more aware of overbooking than Thais. Chances are they may be asked to volunteer every time they travel," the executive added.

Under the law, airlines can ask passengers to leave the plane for various reasons, particularly security concerns when safety cannot be compromised.

However, when the airline has to bump passengers because of overselling, they have to ask for volunteers by offering incentives.

"We recently raised the authorised offer limit to passengers who are denied boarding. I cannot tell you how much because we cannot disclose our ultimate offer during the negotiation with the customers," the executive said.

Station managers at the airport will decide the maximum compensation during negotiations with passengers. Compensation can take the form of mileage or cash vouchers.

As for the incident in Chicago, people in the airline business have asked why United Airlines didn't raise the offer when no passengers accepted their $800 offer for volunteers to give up their seats.

NEGOTIATE COMPENSATION FIRST

Assoc Prof Kannapha Amaruchkul, a lecturer in the logistics management programme at the Graduate School of Applied Statistics at the National Institute of Development Administration (Nida), has conducted research with her PhD students on denied boarding rates in the US.

The research was conducted as part of the course on revenue management. The course focuses on what to do to maximise income following the strategy of "sell the right product to the right customer at the right time for the right price".

The airline business is the main focus of the course.

When the company can segment customers by different levels of willingness to pay, each group of customers will be charged a different price. Airlines usually separate passengers into different classes: first class, business class and economy class. Even in the same class, the price that each customer pays can vary.

Customers who book a ticket close to the travel period generally have confirmed schedules to meet, such as business travellers who have arranged meeting or conference dates.

Passengers who book well before the travel date are usually leisure travellers.

By nature, leisure travellers are a price-sensitive group. However, they are more flexible with their schedules. They usually book far ahead in order to get the best deal. Therefore, even in economy class, the price of the ticket can differ depending on the booking period and the terms and conditions of the ticket.

"If the airline sells a lot of cheap tickets, they will have no tickets left for those who come later. But if they don't sell enough cheap tickets, the plane will not be filled," Kannapha said.

The overbooking rate for each flight depends on the previous statistics of that particular flight. Determining whether or not the flight will have a high overbooking rate is based on the number of people who cancel that flight. The airline will then try to find a way to fill the plane with overbooked passengers who are on standby.

The US Department of Transportation has released its April 2017 Air Travel Consumer Report, compiling air carrier data for February 2017. The report contains denied boarding (oversold) data for the October-December 2016 quarter, as airlines report denied boarding numbers on a quarterly basis.

Carriers cancelled 1.5% of their scheduled domestic flights in February 2017, an improvement over both the 1.6% cancellation rate posted in February 2016 and the 2% rate in January 2017.

Carriers posted an on-time arrival rate of 82.6% in February 2017, down from the 83.6% on-time rate in February 2016 but up from the 76% mark in January 2017.

Data for October-December 2016 show that United Airlines denied boarding to 15,595 voluntary passengers and 891 involuntary ones out of a total of 22,398,395 passengers. The involuntary denied boarding rate per 10,000 passengers stood at 0.40.

The Department of Transportation determined that all US airlines must have an involuntary denied boarding rate of 0.5-1.5 per 10,000 passengers. But for voluntary, they are allowed 15-20 passengers per 10,000 passengers.

"The chances that passengers will be denied boarding are one in 10,000 among US airlines," Kannapha said.

Thailand doesn't follow the same guidelines regarding controlled denied boarding rates. However, the Royal Gazette of Nov 5, 2010, specified that airlines in Thailand that deny boarding will have to pay compensation starting from 1,200 baht to their passengers plus accommodation and other fees that arise.

Some airlines have a notification system for passengers who check in online. Passengers might get denied boarding but the airlines are willing to pay compensation.

Passengers are then allowed to determine the compensation they want if they are denied boarding.

Denied boarding doesn't mean the airline stops you from travelling. The airline will put such passengers on the next flight, which can be one hour later or the first flight the following day.

"What makes the United Airlines incident evil is not overbooking -- what is evil about it is the way they handled the situation. The airline has the legal right to remove passengers but that doesn't mean they can force passengers off the plane the way they did," Kannapha said.

"The best way to handle overbooking is to negotiate compensation before passengers board the plane. It should be done either at the check-in counter or at the boarding gate."

Jetstar passengers were trapped for hours on tarmac in Phuket with no air conditioning

PASSENGERS were fainting and babies were stripped down to just their nappies on a “nightmare” Melbourne-bound Jetstar flight stranded on the tarmac with no air conditioning in tropical conditions.

Jetstar flight JQ18 was scheduled to leave Thailand’s Phuket airport at 10:20pm local time but was delayed for more than two hours due to two separate technical faults and a passenger needing to get off due to a medical condition.

One of the technical faults affected the ground power unit, which controls the air conditioning unit, so those aboard were forced to endure Thailand’s tropical heat and humidity.

A statement from Jetstar provided to news.com.au said the cabin crew “tried to make customers as comfortable as possible” by providing regular cold water while engineers worked on the aircraft.

However, those aboard had a different story. Angry customers have taken to Jetstar’s Facebook page saying the incident was “horrific” and that Jetstar’s customer service was “disgusting”.

News.com.au spoke to one of the passengers, Laura Beach-Mahoney, who said they were not provided with any updates as several passengers fell ill from the heat.

“Babies were stripped to nappies, the aircraft ran out of water, we had no air for over two hours,” she told news.com.au.

“A young girl had an asthma attack while the air hostess fanned her with the safety manual, then an elderly man fainted — he also was stripped down to his shorts. He needed oxygen from a tank.”

After more than two hours in stifling conditions on the plane, they were finally allowed to disembark and the flight was rescheduled to 4pm today. However, Ms Beach-Mahoney said they then weren’t even given accommodation near the airport.

“Once we finally got off, no one told us what was going on for hours. If the passengers didn’t all rally together we probably we would have been at the airport all night,” she said.

“Then our bus driver, who could barely even drive a coach — we genuinely feared for our safety — got lost and we drove for more than two hours to get to our hotel, which was not anywhere near the airport. It was back in Patong!”

Ms Beach-Mahoney, and the hundreds of other passengers, are now currently back at the airport battling exhaustive queues to check-in again.